Journalism has always been a dangerous profession.
In 1989, for example, sixty-three journalists were killed on the job in 22 countries.
In the first three months of 1990, journalists were killed in El Salvador, Brazil, Romania, and Turkey.
Proportionally, more journalists were killed in Viet Nam than American soldiers.
Now the danger for many journalists comes not just from being at the scene of battle, but because their reporting challenges authority, investigates crime and drug rings, and government corruption.
These journalists see their jobs as exposing the misuse of wealth and power.
Foreign correspondents have been kidnapped in China and Sri Lanka not only from the scene being reported but even from their homes.
Some have later been freed and had been treated well in captivity.
Others were later found murdered.
Other reporters, such as those covering the protests in Tainanmen Square in China, have been beaten, kicked and harassed, and made to disperse at gunpoint.
Women reporters and the wives of correspondents have also been beaten and harassed.
Chinese reporters were threatened and jailed by the police unless they printed only the official line of the Communist government.
Most eventually did what the government asked.
A reporter in Columbia who crusaded against the drug cartel was shot to death in his parents home.
Mexican journalists were killed pursuing stories of government corruption and drug trafficking.
